Ilario, the Stone Golem (64 page)

it back into my purse.

‘Rekhmire’—’

Tread
carefully
, I reminded myself.

No man is at his best in pain, and Carthage’s Bursa-hill had not been

kind to the Egyptian’s body.

‘If I do take Carrasco, it will be to keep him safe from Videric. But I do

think it would be better if he could live on Honorius’s estate – assuming

he wants to. Onorata could still see him, then.’

Rekhmire’ snorted. ‘Don’t know why you don’t
marry
the damn

prick!’

My temper went wherever tempers go.

‘Because, like
so
many
people
, it never appears to have occurred to him to
ask
me
!’

Some of Jian’s crewmen jumped back, making a wide berth around the

hatch-cover. Rekhmire’ sat upright, fingers motionless on his knee,

staring at me with a wide-eyed shock.

314

He dropped his gaze and muttered sullenly, ‘It was the first thing I

asked you – if you wanted a slave-contract to include bed.’

I would have said something,
anything!
, had I control of my wits or my

mouth.

Evidently I had neither.

I stared at him.

Rekhmire’ returned to gazing at the backs of his hands. ‘You weren’t

interested. As you told me.’

‘Not then. I thought it would be two freaks together because they had

no other choice—’

He interrupted, his voice a squeak. ‘“Not then”?’

‘Ah—’

My turn to look away. I stared over the rail at the approaching coast of

Gades.

‘Then again, I’ve been married twice this year . . . ’

‘“
Not
then
”
!
’ Rekhmire’ all but bellowed. ‘What do you mean, “not then”? When did it change? Did it change? Why didn’t you tell me!’

He glared at me, surprisingly ruffled and breathless for such a large

man.

I said, ‘If I can put up with you when you’re sick in bed in Venice, I’ve

probably seen all your worse qualities . . . ’

Rekhmire’ looked thoroughly overthrown. ‘That discouraged you.’

‘I wasn’t even
thinking
, at that time—!’ I shook my head. ‘I’m just saying. You with a bad temper because you’re in pain. Nothing of it’s a

surprise.’

Rekhmire’ lurched up, manhandling himself off the hatch-cover and

striding to the port rail. He stared out at white spray. I watched the line

of his back.

Without turning round, Rekhmire’ said, ‘The difference is that now I

have to
prove
to Ty-ameny that I can do my job.’

I was appalled. ‘She’d
dismiss
you over this?’

He laughed, turning to face me, showing me a broad smile. ‘Sacred

Eight, no! But if she thinks I’m having problems, she’ll have me back in

Alexandria at a bureaucrat’s desk, before you can say “Royal Library”!

She wants me
safe
. She’d make everything as comfortable for me as she

could. But I . . . ’

‘Want to be here, doing this,’ I completed.

I sat up, cross-legged; shifted again; and got up to walk to the rail

beside him. For all the distraction, I couldn’t bite back the remaining

words in my mind.

‘Yes, I’d noticed how close you and Ty-ameny are! She does
know

what you’re like after a month in one place?’

His eyes slitted. A little defensively, he said, ‘She’s like a sister. And furthermore, I would be
perfectly
capable
of working at home in the city!’

‘Hope she doesn’t mind her crockery thrown at people’s heads . . . ’

315

The Egyptian narrowed his eyes still further at me. ‘Pot. Kettle. Black!’

I would not have laughed if I could have prevented it. Unfortunately,

that and his expression reduced me to breathlessness.

‘In any case,’ he said, a while after my recovery, ‘when I say I can offer

you Ty-ameny’s patronage as a cousin – you may not be aware,

precisely, of what it would involve for you.’

He put a stress on the last word that stopped me telling him,
Yes,
I
understood
the
book-buyers’
trade
thank
you
very
much
.

‘I mean it would be offered in respect of your particular talents. As

with the Admiral’s ship at Alexandria harbour.’

Slowly, I said, ‘You mean Queen Ty-ameny is offering me the chance

to . . . go somewhere and
draw
things?’

‘And paint them.’ Rekhmire’ raised a brow. ‘Many places.’

‘And be paid for this.’

‘It is a very modest amount of money—’

‘
Sign
me
up!
’ I bounced on the deck, feeling all of fourteen. ‘That’s just what I want to do!’

The Egyptian smiled. Not as brightly as I had expected. I caught a

glimpse of something bitter-sweet in his expression.

I paused.

‘I suppose,’ I said, ‘before I go wandering around on my own, I’d need

some training?’

Rekhmire’ looked at me.

‘A mentor?’ I said. ‘Someone more experienced? Someone who, for

example, has been doing this for a long—’

‘YES! I’ll do it!’

I grinned up at the panting book-buyer.

‘Did I say I was going to ask you? Maybe I should ask Ty-ameny to

decide who she’d recommend—’

He had been reduced to speechlessness, I saw.

‘—since she threatened to pull my intestines out of my body,’ I added,

‘if I ever did anything to hurt you.’

Rekhmire’ stared at me.

‘What?’

‘When we were in the Library one time—’

‘The –
interfering
little
brat!
’

He was too far away, I decided. I took the few steps that crossed the

distance between us, on uncertain legs, and stood at the rail by his side.

‘Actually . . . ’ I surveyed the Gulf of Gades. ‘It was Ty-ameny who

made me realise that I’d miss you, if you went off somewhere else.’

‘You would?’

Frightened as I was, I heard myself sound very definite. ‘Yes, I would.’

‘Oh.’ He sat back. ‘Good.’

‘Rekhmire’—’

316

‘Good. I suppose that in that case I can stop worrying that you’re

going to notice I’ve been
following
you
around
for
a
year
now
!’

All the crew for fifteen feet around briefly turned to stare at the mad

barbarian. Rekhmire’ gasped in a breath.

I watched his broad chest move.

‘Really?’ I said. ‘All year?’

‘I don’t know
what
gave Ty-ameny the idea that you’re in any way

intelligent!’

‘No, nor do I.’

I gave way to a temptation of long standing, and leaned my shoulder

up against his. His skin felt heated, soft.
Prickling,
like
silk
rubbed
over
amber
.

He didn’t move away.

I shifted, pushing my way into the gap between his arm and his ribs.

Rekhmire’ beamed and put his arm around me.

‘Ilario!’

The voice spoke behind me without giving me any warning so I might

move. I turned my head, looked down the deck, and found myself

staring directly at Honorius.

Rekhmire’ did not so much as twitch beside me – because, I realised

from peripheral vision, he appeared to be in a blind panic.

Honorius let out an explosive sigh.

‘Oh, thank
God
! It’s about damn time!’

I managed to turn my head back and look up at Rekhmire’.

He gazed down at me, lips moving a little, as if he would have formed

words if he could.

The Captain-General of Taraconensis snorted and turned his back,

stalking away down the deck of the war-junk.

His mutter was perfectly audible.

‘ . . . Been expecting this since
Rome
. . . !’

We looked at each other.

Rekhmire’ gave me his gravest expression. ‘I suppose we’d better not

disappoint him.’

I was too weak for laughter. I leaned against the warmth of his bare

chest. He was not so much taller than I, and he smelled wonderful. ‘Only

if it’s what you want. You know what I am.’

‘You know what
I
am. Some things are less – urgent for me than for other men.’ He moved his other arm, to enclose me, and I felt the weight

as he leaned his smooth cheek against my temple. ‘I can’t give you

children, either. But I can cherish the one you have.’

As
long
as
we
have
her
, I thought, melancholy in the midst of this happiness. What is valuable is always fragile.

The sea rocked us as we sat together on the hatch-cover, playing the

game that lovers play of ‘when did you first notice?’, ‘when did you first

feel . . . ?’.

317

It was a long time before I moved, and then it was to get up and go to

the ship’s rail. I shaded my eyes as the war-junk opened the harbour of

Gades.

‘Something isn’t right.’

Rekhmire’ shoved himself to his feet and thumped across the deck to

stand beside me.

The myriad other war-junks of Zheng He’s fleet kept station astern

across the Gulf of Gades – impossibly large under the brilliant sun;

impossibly and spikily graceful.

At least a dozen European and North African ships out of Carthage

were, out of apparent sheer curiosity, attempting to keep up with us.

Frankish cogs, Venetian galleys . . . The wooden rail jammed hard under

my ribs as I leaned out, looking toward our stern.

A cog flying the colours of Genoa tacked across the war-junk’s wake,

bowsprit jutting high out of the blue-grey waves – just as high as the top

of our rudder. Their deck was a cliff’s depth below me.

Sounding unusually confused, Rekhmire’ murmured, ‘What ought I to

see?’

I pointed at the departing Genoese ship – and the other vessels sailing

towards us from the entrance to the harbour.

‘
That
isn’t right,’ I protested. ‘It doesn’t matter if they’ve heard rumours. This is Zheng He’s giant devil-ship in the flesh –
and
his fleet!

Why isn’t Gades in a panic?’

318

15

‘There’s the answer.’ I balanced uneasily, a knee on the boat’s prow, and

studied the quay of Gades ahead.

Under the banners, a group of men stood, evidently waiting to greet

the Captain-General of Taraconensis. The tall man in Carthaginian

robes would be the Governor. Beside him . . .

‘That’s Safrac de Aguilar.’ I sat back beside Honorius, avoiding falling

by a fraction. ‘The man beside
him
is Videric.’

A muscle clenched at the hinge of Honorius’s jaw.

‘Is it so?’

He spent a moment adjusting his heavy sea-cloak over his demi-gown.

With his temper bridled, he added, ‘The King told me to return by way

of Gades, and as a courtesy inform the Governor that the Admiral’s

ships have no ill intentions towards him – being our allies.’

The same method of wiping one’s enemy’s face in it as Rodrigo

Sanguerra had ordered for Carthage, evidently.

‘Therefore,’ Honorius gritted, ‘I should very much like to know what

Pirro Videric is doing here!’

Wind caught the banners, rolling them out on the wind. I recognised

the Sanguerra colours, as well as Videric’s personal banner.

‘The King trusts de Aguilar, for what
that’s
worth.’

Honorius set his jaw and didn’t speak.

I clung to the boat’s side, wishing I might talk to Rekhmire’ – who

travelled with the other men in the second boat. Neither Honorius nor

Orazi were willing to speculate. I concentrated, impatiently, on reaching

the quay, and on not being sick.

Videric stepped forward out of the crowd as soon as Honorius finished

his formal greetings to the Governor of Gades.

‘King Rodrigo was uncertain when you’d complete your business in

Carthage. Whether it would be done before the Pharaoh-Queen’s

subjects would be put ashore at Gades.’ Videric smiled, his fair hair and

open expression making him appear very guileless. ‘The King sent me

here in case you should miss the day.’

Of all the odd things I have seen in the last twelve months, my

stepfather Videric walking amiably beside my natural father Honorius,

towards the Governor of Gades’ palace, must be the most remarkable of

all.

319

*

‘I see where you get your glass-throwing habits from,’ the book-buyer

remarked.

I winced at a crash from the opulent chambers the Governor had